We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method

Publisher's Summary

Marian is in her mid-30s and trying to get over the shock of her 18-year-old twins leaving her to live with their father in the USA. As a distraction she takes a job looking after a younger woman, Stella, on a coach tour to Greece. It seems to be the answer to all her worries - financial and otherwise - although there is some mystery surrounding Stella's background. As the tour gets underway, strange things begin happen, including some serious accidents. People become suspicious, and nobody is at all sure whom they can trust. Marion becomes increasingly worried, both for her own sake and for Stella's, and at the same time tries to resist her increasing attraction to a friendly classics professor who is also on the tour. A suspenseful thriller, tense and concise, that builds interesting characters with ease. Born near Cambridge, Massachusetts to Pulitzer prize-winning poet Conrad Aiken and his first wife, the writer Jessie McDonald, Jane Hodge was 3 years old when her family moved to Great Britain, settling in Rye, East Sussex, where her younger sister, Joan, who would become a novelist and a children’s writer, was born. Their parents divorced in 1929. From 1935, Jane Hodge read English at Somerville College, Oxford University, and in 1938 she took a second degree in English at Radcliffe College, her mother’s alma mater. She was a civil servant for a time, and also worked for Time magazine, before returning to the UK in 1947. Her works of fiction include historical novels and contemporary detective novels. In 1972 she renounced her United States citizenship and became a British subject. For many years a believer in the right of people to end their own lives, Hodge chose to end her own by means of an overdose in June 2009. The Times obituary (pub. July 25, 2009) stated that she left "a letter expressing her deep distress that she had felt unable to discuss her plans with her daughters without risking making them accessories".

WHAT A COME DOWN!

The author writes in a style similar to Mary Stewart and and I enjoy her books just as much as The Ivy Tree and My brother Michael.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

She reads the whole book at high speed and in a high breathless voice. I do not know what her language background is, but she mispronounces the most ordinary English words. I often had to "decipher" words as they did not sound anything like the real thing.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story. I have been looking out for audiobooks by Jane Aiken Hodge, especially those dealing with the 20th century. This audio version was really a big disappointment

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

By
Louize
on
12-24-16

Terrible

A reasonable story. BUT the WORST NARRATOR I have ever listened to. She is unable to pronounce even the most basic words. I cannot believe anyone could pass this as saleable. Such incredible blunders and appalling delivery